JUDGE. Cell 



an over-speaking judge is no well tuned cymbal. 

 He is diligent in discovering the merits of the cause: 

 by his own exertions ; (p ) from the witnesses, and 

 the advocates. He is cautious in his judgment; not 

 forming a hasty opinion: not tenacious in retaining an 

 opinion when formed : never ashamed of being wiser 

 to-day than he was yesterday: never wandering from 

 the substance of the matter in judgment into useless 

 subtlety and refinement. He does not delay justice. 



man his full scope, thinking it much better to lose time than patience. Life of 

 Hale. Seneca says of Claudius, &quot; He passed sentence una tantum parte 

 audita saepe et nulla.&quot; He is patient and attentive in hearing the pleadings 

 and witnesses on both sides. Audi alteram partem is a maxim of which he 

 never loses sight. One of Sir M. Hale s rules is, &quot; That I suffer not myself to 

 be prepossessed with any judgment at all till the whole business and both 

 parties be heard.&quot; Another is, &quot; That I never engage myself in the beginning 

 of any cause, but reserve myself unprejudiced till the whole be heard.&quot; 



(p) If the cause be difficult, his diligence is the greater to sift it out. For though 

 there be mention, Psalm xxxvii. 6, of righteousness as clear as the noon-day, 

 yet God forbid that that innocency which is no clearer than twilight should be 

 condemned. And seeing one s oath commands another s life, he searcheth 

 whether malice did not command that oath ; yet when all is done, the judge 

 may be deceived by false evidence. But blame not the hand of the dial, if it 

 points at a false hour, when the fault is in the wheels of the clock which direct 

 it, and are out of frame. Fuller. 



Sir M. Hale, in his rules of things to be continually had in remembrance, 

 says, &quot; That I be wholly intent upon the business I am about, omitting all 

 other cares and thoughts as unseasonable and interruptions.&quot; 



I remember that, when I was a young man, a prisoner was tried at the Old 

 Bailey for a capital offence in secreting a letter. I forget the judge by whom 

 he was tried, but Sir Soulden Lawrence was on the bench, and when the judge 

 by whom he was tried was about to charge the jury, Sir Soulden stated a point 

 of law which had occurred to him in favour of the prisoner. This attention of Sir 

 Soulden saved the man s life : his name was Pooley, Benjamin Pooley I think. 



Lord Eldon was very much in the habit of taking home the pleadings after 

 the case had been argued. He told me that, in reading some pleadings, he had 

 just discovered that the counsel had omitted to notice the only point upon which 

 the case turned. He mentioned it, and the bar saw their error. He was one 

 of the most, if not the most pains-taking judge, it is my firm conviction, that ever 

 existed. 



